may 2, 2025 - Local Elections: Reform UK Success

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Nigel Farage's Reform UK has made big gains in English local elections, cementing it as a prime challenger to Britain's traditional main parties.

It won 677 of around 1,600 seats contested on Thursday across a clutch of mainly Tory-held councils last contested in 2021.

Reform seized control of eight authorities from the Conservatives, including former strongholds Kent and Staffordshire.

The party has also won control of Doncaster, the only council Labour was defending, and Durham, where Labour was previously the largest party.

Reform also displaced Labour in Runcorn and Helsby, where it won a tightly-fought Westminster by-election to make Sarah Pochin its fifth MP.

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